Greater Manchester XC Championships and the Valencia Marathon

Leigh Sports Village was the venue for last Saturday’s Greater Manchester Cross Country Championships. With a relatively flat and fast course and good weather conditions the spectators were treated to some excellent races, with Bury’s younger athletes turning in some superb performances. The first race of the day was the under 13 boys with Bury’s Ethan Statham one of the prerace favourites. Ethan dealt well with the pressure and hared around the 3000m course in 10.39 to take victory and county selection. He showed a clean pair of heels to rivals O’Hare from Sale and Lombard from Salford and was delighted with his win.

The under 13 girls was the next race and this saw superb performances from Bury athletes. Heidi Wilkinson demonstrated that she is returning to fine form taking second place, just two seconds clear from clubmate Isla Taylor who took third. Both should be offered county places. Niamh Murray ran strongly to take 12^th as did Myla Bryan in 14^th. Nina Boodhun was Bury’s other finisher in 29^th. In the under 15 girls race Lucy Dent ran strongly to place 10^th.

Emma Stansfield ran in the under 17 women’s race and performed well to place 8^th a position that may well give her a county call up. The under 20 mens race saw another win in a Bury vest. Bryn Lawrence continued with his fine form over the country to lead the field home with a six second advantage over the runner up. This will give him selection for inter counties in Nottingham in March.  Caitlyn Johnston ran superbly in the senior women’s race to take third place and a place in the Greater Manchester team. Overall, a superb day for Bury AC with two county champions, one runner up and two third places.

The previous weekend Bury had three competitors in the prestigious Valencia Marathon. Jack Passey was the first Bury AC athlete home, smashing his previous marathon best by over 42 minutes to cross the line in 2:39.17. The fastest time by a Bury athlete in well over 15 years. Dan Chapman was the next finisher, taking over 8 minutes off his PB with 2:44.08. Alia Braithwaite sliced six minutes off her previous best with a time of 2:53.03 to place 37^th in the F35 age category. Fantastic performances from all three athletes.